Ethereum's gas fee history records the network's growth from sub-cent fees at launch in 2015 to a peak of $53 in 2021, and back down to fractions of a cent in 2026.
Key Milestones in ETH Fee History
2017: ~$0.20 avg — ICO boom.
2018: ~$1.20 avg — ICO peak and fade.
2020: ~$14 avg — DeFi summer demand surge.
May 10, 2021: $53.16 all-time high — NFT frenzy.
2022: ~$4.50 avg — The Merge stabilizes fees.
2025: Below $1 — L2 adoption and Dencun upgrade.
March 2026: ~$0.22 avg — historically low period.
The Dencun Upgrade Impact
The Ethereum Dencun upgrade (EIP-4844) introduced proto-danksharding, dramatically reducing the cost for Layer-2 networks to post data to mainnet. Layer-2 fees dropped 90%+, mainnet congestion fell, and we entered the sustained low-fee environment of 2026.
Year-Over-Year Fee Decline
February fees: $24.25 in 2021 vs $0.76 in 2025 — a drop of over 96%. The average Gwei price fell from 200+ to under 1 Gwei, reflecting genuine protocol progress.